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South Glamorgan
County News
2011/2012
The year has started off at a fast pace but not always as expected.
 My Declaration took place in the University of Glamorgan’s ATRiuM building in Cardiff and the coincidence that the outgoing High Sheriff and I live in the same small town attracted the attention of the local press, but the highlights of the evening were the contributions made by the students of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama – the Declaration was to have been in their splendid new building and when its late completion forced the move their offer to provide music and song at the alternative venue was readily accepted. A brass ensemble as guests arrived, trumpeters as the outgoing High Sheriff and I arrived, a soprano soloist with songs in English and Welsh and fanfares galore made the event memorable. I was delighted that Mr Justice Lloyd Jones, the Presiding Judge of the Wales Circuit, was able to take my Declaration.
I had been told by former High Sheriffs of the County that High Court Judges came at the rate of about one a month so the first few months were unexpectedly busy on the judicial front! Besides hospitality for the High Court Judges sitting in Cardiff as part of the usual circuit arrangements and lunches with the circuit judges in the local civil and criminal courts there have been several ‘special’ occasions.
 On
7th June the Queen came to open the Fourth Assembly of the National Assembly for Wales and seventeen senior Judges attended. Six of the High Sheriffs of Wales entertained twelve of them and senior public sector lawyers to dinner in the Mansion House in Cardiff the preceding evening and then joined them in attending the Opening.
A couple of days later a Divisional Court of three Judges sat in Cardiff to consider an appeal against the closure of a local magistrates’ court.
At the end of June a civil division of the Court of Appeal sat in Cardiff and the High Sheriffs of Gwent, Mid Glamorgan and South Glamorgan entertained them and their wives to dinner in the Mansion House. The following evening started with a County cricket match and ended with a curry with two of the Lord Justices!
The other major activity in the opening months was attendance at the installations of the Lord Mayor, and mayors and at their Civic Services – very useful opportunities for me to meet a large number of the people involved in the public life of the County. Indeed we met so often we quickly became friends.
Add in French and British naval visits and this has meant that plans to resurrect the County’s High Sheriff’s Award scheme have not proceeded as quickly as I planned. Other plans to fund courses to be run by Citizens UK to train community leaders are proceeding and should bear fruit in the autumn... watch this space!
Roger Thomas OBE
High Sheriff of South Glamorgan 2011/2012
2010/2011
One of my privileges as High Sheriff has been to be an Honorary Vice-President of Cardiff Business Club and a guest at their monthly meetings at which speakers such as The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Lord Heseltine and Dr Lyndon Evans, Director of the Large Hadron Collider, have entertained and stimulated the audiences.
Another was the singular privilege of being a guest at the Welcome to Wales event at the Millennium Stadium, in celebration of the Ryder Cup coming to Wales for the first time, where not only did I greet HRH The Prince of Wales but also witnessed at close hand the parade of the two teams and the Ryder Cup on stage, before great performances by Only Men Aloud, Only Boys Aloud, Katherine Jenkins and Dame Shirley Bassey.
Later in the year the Swiss Ambassador and Mrs Thalaman invited me to a concert of contemporary music composed by Michael Jarrell performed at the Hoddinott Hall in the Millennium Centre by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Thierry Fischer. The Swiss Consul and the Consular Association of Wales have hospitably involved High Sheriffs of South Wales at other events during the year.
The Shrievalty Cup is awarded each year to a member of the South Wales Police Force for outstanding service. The entries are judged by the High Sheriffs of Mid, West and South Glamorgan who presented the Cup and runners up awards at the annual South Wales Police Awards Ceremony in the Cardiff City Hall on the night of the first heavy snowfall in November. Earlier that month I had attended the Service of Remembrance at the Wales National War Memorial in Cardiff which was followed by a March Past in front of City Hall. Two days before that I had been a guest at the 30th Wales Festival of Remembrance at St David’s Hall, where I had the pleasure of meeting two Chelsea Pensioners. There was also a sombre scene of remembrance at a moving ceremony at City Hall to mark National Holocaust Memorial Day on 27th January. On 1st March I attended the Wales National St David’s Day Service at the City parish church of St John the Baptist, and then observed the parade through the streets of Cardiff. That evening I was a guest at the St David’s Day dinner at City Hall. Later in the month, I was present at a Citizenship Ceremony at the Mansion House, conducted by the Vice Lord Lieutenant and the Lord Mayor. It was a very impressive occasion, and I attended a Flag Raising ceremony at the Mansion House on 26th March to celebrate Bangladesh Independence Day.
2011 marks the 650th anniversary of the Office of Justice of the Peace. I was invited as High Sheriff and as a recently retired magistrate to a Civic Reception, hosted by the Lord Mayor and City of Cardiff, to celebrate this notable anniversary.
At the conclusion of a Crown Court trial in November, the Recorder of Cardiff, His Honour Judge Nicholas Cooke QC, ordered that a firefighter be publicly commended for entering a building which had been deliberately set on fire to rescue a vulnerable resident, despite considerable risk to himself. I subsequently visited Cardiff Central Fire Station to present the firefighter with a Certificate of Commendation and also to present him and the other members of his watch with High Sheriff’s Awards. I met many of the firefighters and was able to climb aboard a fire engine and to have the extensive array of equipment explained to me. A 999 call came in during my visit. It was impressive to witness the vehicle and crew leave within one minute!
In March, I went to Cardiff Bay Police Station to present two Detective Constables with Commendation Certificates and High Sheriff Awards, in recognition of what the Crown Court Judge said had been the best investigative policing he had seen in seven years. Before presenting the Awards, I attended the daily tasking session which brings Cardiff police stations together via a video link to go through the previous night’s criminal activity across the City.
 At a community centre in Cardiff I signed and presented Achievement Certificates to some thirty children in Year 7 at eight local secondary schools. These had attended the Action First Plus Literacy/Numeracy Programme on Saturday mornings. Action First Plus works with families and young people from hard-to-reach and poor
socio-economic backgrounds. I later returned to present High Sheriff’s Awards to the Chairman of the charity and to the teachers who spend their Saturday mornings helping these children to achieve. More recently I have presented certificates to winners at the Welsh National Final of the English-speaking Union Schools’ Public Speaking competition.
Her Majesty Queen Masenate Mohato Seeiso of Lesotho made a State Visit to Wales in October and was received at the Mansion House by the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Mayor and myself. On the following day, as Chairman of Governors at Howell’s School, which has special links with Lesotho, I welcomed the Queen to the school for a concert in her honour.
The birthday of HRH The Prince of Wales in November was marked by a Royal Salute at Cardiff Castle by the 104th Regiment Royal Artillery (Volunteers), preceded by the traditional glass of port – most welcome on a cold morning!
HRH The Princess Royal visited Cardiff to present Long Service Awards to Victim Support volunteers at St David’s Hotel where the Lord Lieutenant, the Lord Mayor and I greeted her. The Princess’s interest in and knowledge of the work of the charity was clearly evident in her address and conversation with the volunteers.
A Gala Dinner, held by the High Sheriffs of Mid, West and South Glamorgan to raise funds for the South Wales Police Youth Trust was a great success. Special tributes are due to Beverley Humphries, High Sheriff of Mid-Glamorgan, who entertained us to a special version of ‘Showtime’, and to Anne Morgan, Regional Co-ordinator in Wales for the High Sheriffs’ Association, who masterminded the event.
I enjoyed the carol services held in aid of the Knights of St John and of the RNLI in Penarth, reading one of the lessons at the latter. I have attended events and given my support to Save the Children, St John Cymru Wales, Royal British Legion,Help for Heroes, Seafarers UK, LATCH and Ty Hafan, the latter two being charities which support children with cancer,
pre-terminal and terminal illnesses.
Dinners at our home for visiting High Court Judges seem to have been enjoyed by all, as was the dinner given at the Mansion House by the High Sheriffs of Powys, Mid, West and South Glamorgan for the three Court of Appeal Judges sitting in Cardiff in November. The High Sheriff’s Room at the Crown Court in Cardiff was the venue for a pre-Christmas party I hosted at which previous High Sheriffs could meet the High Sheriffs In Nomination for 2011, 2012 and 2013. Early in April I held a valedictory dinner in the Chairman’s Suite at Cardiff City Stadium to say farewell to my predecessors from 1977 onwards and to welcome my successor, Roger Thomas OBE. This was also an opportunity to hand on the South Glamorgan Shrieval memorabilia (as described in the winter edition of this magazine) and to invite Ian Colston, High Sheriff in 1983/84, to give an account of the various items and their history. An enjoyable and memorable year in Office came to an end at Roger Thomas’s Declaration Ceremony on 19th April.
“You will meet interesting people whom you might otherwise not have met and find yourself in situations you had not previously experienced”, said the High Sheriff who nominated me. How true! Previous High Sheriffs said the same, as, in various social situations in the run up to my year in Office, they unobtrusively passed on lore of the Shrievalty and its duties.
 After the ceremony at the Royal Courts of Justice in November, my husband,Ian, and I were lucky enough to be shown the beautiful Elizabethan hall of Middle Temple which, like the Shrievalty itself, is redolent of so much British history. Links between the Justice System and the Shrievalty were further emphasized at the legal service in Llandaff Cathedral later that month.Together with the other High Sheriffs in Wales, I attended the Legal Service in Bangor Cathedral on 10th October this year.
In South Glamorgan, a week or two before the Declaration ceremony, a Shrievalty dinner is held. The outgoing High Sheriff welcomes the incoming High Sheriff and passes over memorabilia comprising of a silver salver, bearing the High Sheriffs’ logo, the badge of the County High Sheriff, a gold and diamond-set brooch of the High Sheriffs’ Association donated by David Jones(High Sheriff in 1998) in memory of his wife and a Cloak, donated by the late John Cory who was High Sheriff of the County of Glamorgan in 1959.
The new High Sheriff then has to respond. I chose to describe my past as a nurse, Relate counsellor, magistrate, Community Health Counsellor, school governor, wife and mother and ended with my hopes for my year ahead. The Declaration was made on 30th March in the Great Hall at Howell’s School, in traditional format. Within a month I was privileged to be among those who welcomed HRH Prince Philip, when he came to Cardiff to present Duke of Edinburgh awards at the Mansion House. There soon followed a number of mayoral inaugurations,and their civic services continued into September.
High Court Judges have stimulated our dinner parties and have reciprocated kindly with invitations to dinners at the Judges’ Lodgings, where, among others, we have met Sir Nicholas Wall, Presiding Judge of the Family Courts of England and Wales, and Dame Janet Smith of the Court of Appeal (visiting to hear the Badger Trust’s Appeal). In July, together with the High Sheriffs of Mid-Glamorgan and Gwent, we held a formal dinner at the Mansion House in honour of the Master of the Rolls, Lord Neuberger, Sir Malcolm and Lady Pill and Sir Stephen and Lady Richards. The Lord-Lieutenants of South Glamorgan and Gwent and two previous High Sheriffs of Mid Glamorgan helped entertain these three distinguished members of the Court of Appeal. Sitting with these and other Judges at the Crown Court and Civil Justice Centre has been both enjoyable and enlightening. The High Sheriff’s room at the Crown Court was the venue in July for a lunch for my previous colleagues on the Vale of Glamorgan Bench and the Recorder of Cardiff. We are privileged to be able to use this historic room, and will be holding further functions there.
 Cardiff was host city to National Armed Forces Day on 25th June. HRH The Prince of Wales arrived at Llandaff Fields by helicopter, to be welcomed by the Lord Lieutenant, the Lord Mayor, the First Minister, Secretary of State for Wales, the Chief Constable and myself. The Duchess of Cornwall, the Secretary of State for Defence, the Chief of Defence Staff and other senior officers of the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force joined the VIP party at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff Bay in good time for Prince Charles and the Lord Mayor to take the salute from the marching columns and bands of the Armed Forces, columns which also included cadets and veterans. A Drumhead service followed on what was a very hot day. At the end of the Drumhead Service there was a fly-past by a Lancaster and Spitfire, a fitting culmination to a moving, historic and celebratory day,witnessed by members of the public in their thousands,paying tribute to our Armed Forces.
On the night of the General Election in May, I acted as Returning Officer for the Vale of Glamorgan constituency, witnessing at first hand the process of checking and counting votes. I declared the final result at around 2.30 a.m. “A very fastidious Returning Officer” said David Dimbleby, much to the amusement of family and friends who were following the election on TV.
Ian and I have been guests of the Royal Navy, the Army and the RAF. At the RAF Association’s Battle of Britain 70th anniversary and Sunset Ceremony at the Pier Head Building in Cardiff Bay we were particularly pleased to meet a Battle of Britain pilot, who is now aged 93.
As a Magistrate I took a special interest in youth crime and have now become a Trustee of the South Wales Police Youth Trust, together with the High Sheriffs of Mid Glamorgan and West Glamorgan. The South Wales Police Youth Trust supports projects and organisations which prevent crime and improve quality of life, divert young people from criminal and anti-social behaviour and tackle substance misuse. We are holding a Gala Dinner in November in aid of this Trust.
Being present at the naming ceremony, dedication and launching of a new Penarth lifeboat, speaking and presenting prizes at local schools, and attending fund raising events for local and national charities, have all contributed to a fascinating and rewarding six months.
Anne Campbell, JP DL
High Sheriff of South Glamorgan 2010/2011
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